Tuesday

It's been a downtown staple in Beverly for almost 100 years, and on Tuesday, Dec. 4, The Cabot will kick off its Cabot 100 campaign with "Bessie! Empress of the Blues."

This gala concert event will benefit the theater’s efforts to complete years of renovations by its 100th birthday in 2020, including massive balcony upgrades slated to take place this January (see sidebar).

Hosted by Phillip Martin of WGBH radio and television, as well as Boston Globe associate editor and columnist Renée Graham, the event will feature several artists, including R&B legend Valerie Simpson, of Ashford and Simpson fame, Meshell Ndegeocello, Nona Hendryx and several others.

Honoring one of the great matriarchs of music, the artists will each perform one Bessie Smith song, as well as their own material.

“We are inspired by the legacy of Bessie Smith as a historically significant performer, and our choice to honor her was very intentional,” said J. Casey Soward, executive director of The Cabot. “Bessie, whose star blossomed right around the same time The Cabot opened its doors, gave the blues its raw, regal poignancy, and marketability.”

Known for her powerful vocal delivery, Smith, born in 1894, was the highest paid black performer of her day. Smith signed to Columbia Records in 1923, and sold over 800,000 copies of her first recording, “Down Hearted Blues,” which was eventually named “Song of the Century” by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001.

“She was the Beyoncé of her day,” said Sue Auclair, marketing and communications director for The Cabot. “This event will be one of the biggest things we’ve ever done.”

The Cabot opened as The Ware Theater on Dec. 8, 1920 for vaudeville performances and silent movies, and is one of the 250 remaining movie palaces of the estimated 20,000 originally built during the 1920s. Serving as a movie house under the Loews label, a home for Le Grand David and His Own Spectacular Magic Company, and relaunched as a performing arts center after its near brush with the bulldozers in 2014, the theater has served the city of Beverly and the North Shore for many years.

Soward believes that "Bessie!" will help to carry that same mission forward.

“We hope that events such as this will be an important part of our future, to educate and to entertain, and to leave audiences feeling forever changed by the power of their experiences at The Cabot,” said Soward.

An impressive lineup

Singer-songwriter Paula Cole -- perhaps best known for her 1996 album "This Fire," featuring the hit singles "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" and "I Don't Want to Wait" -- serves as the artistic director of the evening. Cole, a Rockport native and a Beverly resident since 2010, speaks to timeliness of the event as well as to Bessie Smith’s music.

“Bessie was a survivor, too, a liberated woman,” said Cole. “Bessie remains profoundly influential, running in the musical veins of anyone with a heartbeat, and from the greatest of artists, from Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifah, to those present at this concert.

"Now more than ever, it's important we know our history,” said Cole, who is currently working on a new album, set for a 2019 release.

Cole will perform herself at the concert, along with an ever-expanding lineup that includes Valerie Simpson, Meshell Ndegeocello, Nona Hendryx, Doyle Bramhall II, Terri Lyne Carrington, Shemekia Copeland, Dom Flemons and The Western Den.

Bessie Smith's career spanned over 160 recordings over the course of a decade, until she died tragically of injuries sustained in a car accident. Smith’s legacy is continued on with her lifetime achievement award from the Grammys, her commemorative stamp from the U.S. Postal Service, as well as her membership in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Soward wishes The Cabot will also have similar staying power.

“Our goal is to help chart the course of the next 100 years of The Cabot, and to ensure that it is preserved and sustained for generations to come,” said Soward.

"Bessie! Empress of the Blues," takes place Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. at the Cabot, 286 Cabot St. in Beverly. Tickets are $59.50-$84.50. For more information about the concert, the gala dinner and cocktail parties, as well as ticket information and a complete lineup of performers, visit thecabot.org. For more information on Paula Cole, visit paulacole.com.